Snakes and Sh!t

I will be vending at the Raleigh herp show the weekend of August 30th.

This will be the first show I’ve had a table at since I quit doing them in 1999.
I figured I’d give it a  try and see how it goes. Shows are a hassle to do, but with shipping costs rising steadily I think they might start to be worth the time again.

I plan to have quite a few balls there, including spiders, pastels, and albinos, and of course the normal and het siblings. I’ll also have some jungle carpets, some kings and milks, and maybe even some roaches.
If you’re at the show stop and say hi. We won’t have a banner, but my name tag will say Clay, and I’ll probably be the only Clay there. Mention that you saw this post in the blog and I’ll give you 10% off anything you buy.

Clay :: Aug.05.2008 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

Two clutches hatched last week, the jungle carpets and a ball python spider clutch.
Most of the jungle carpet clutch was infertile. An unproven male was the father, so it may have been due to it being his first season. Four hatchlings were produced.

The spider clutch had somewhat poor odds. Two spiders hatched and five normal siblings. Both spiders are males.

I have posted a new article in the Last Word section about the “wobble head” condition of spider balls and my opinions on the topic. You can read it here http://www.arbreptiles.com/lastword/spider_wobble.shtml

Clay :: Jun.13.2008 :: Reptile Related, Site News and Updates, The Collection :: No Comments »

Snakebytes.tv is a new site being launched soon by Brian Barczyk of BHB Reptiles.
It will be a weekly show about the world of a large scale reptile breeder. Word has it this may be the forerunner of an actual television show.
I’m really looking forward to the official launch of the site.

The website for Snakebytes.tv is http://www.snakebytes.tv/

I think a show like this, especially should it make it to television, has enormous potential for our hobby. It would help bring us more into the mainstream and legitimize our hobby if you will.
The great expansion of the reptile hobby over the last decade and a half is a double edged sword to me, but now that we have grown to the point we are, I feel it is important to bring the hobby to the forefront.

Many years ago we were basically ignored by lawmakers and the public in general due to our small numbers and general preference to operate “under the radar” so to speak. We have now reached a point that we are large enough to draw the attention of the public and the lawmakers, and all too often that attention is negative. We will now have to expand further to gain the strength to avoid being legislated out of existence.

Watch for the launch of Snakebytes.TV and support it. Tell your friends about it. Get the number of viewers as high as we can so show the interest is there.
We are at a precarious point in the development of the hobby, and the next few years will determine whether we will be the last generation to enjoy keeping reptiles like we do today.

Clay :: Jan.09.2008 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: 1 Comment »

I know some of you are waiting on the new rat rack plans to get posted.
I wanted to give you an update. I’m still waiting on a few of the components for the watering system to arrive. I will post the plans as soon as they are completed.
There’s no need to email me asking about them, the plans will be published as soon as I get the page written. The rack is built, I’m only waiting on the last parts for the watering system.

I did intend to have the plans completed before Christmas, but I just wasn’t able to.

Clay :: Dec.30.2007 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

I always find the unique behaviors of many animals to be fascinating. No matter how much we learn about nature, it seems there’s always something else ready to amaze us.

I saw this article today about how squirrels in California were found to be using snake skin to scent themselves with to aid in avoiding rattlesnake predators.
An excerpt from the article:

Rattlesnakes often chow down on unwary squirrels, but new research shows the rodents fight back by eating, rubbing and even bathing themselves with pieces of discarded snake skin.

The reptilian musk helps California ground and rock squirrels mask their natural scent and thereby avoid detection from their slithering nemeses.

See this page for the full article http://tinyurl.com/2g4qzr

Every time I see something interesting such as this I can’t help but wonder just how much is going to go completely unknown as a result of species being driven to extinction from mankind’s relentless pursuit of “progress”.

Clay :: Dec.28.2007 :: Herp News, Random Thoughts, Reptile Related :: No Comments »

I must say this action is the single most ignorant and intentionally damaging act to be perpetrated on our hobby to date. The turtle farmers of Louisiana in their blind attempt to get the sale of hatchling red eared sliders legalized in the US have simultaneously endangered the entire reptile hobby.
I cannot believe the combination of gall and stupidity displayed here.

What has happened is an amendment has been added to an agricultural bill after it was passed by the Senate. The amendment was introduced by Senator Mary Landrew (D La). I’ll copy the full text of the amendment at the end of this post, read the entire thing, and pay particular attention to the bold text.

This amendment puts the entire reptile industry in jeopardy. The turtle farmers who pushed for this amendment obviously care nothing for the rest of the industry, only themselves, for what they have done is basically attempt screw the rest of us over completely.

Here is the text of the amendment. This is quoted from Herp Digest

Continue Reading »

Clay :: Dec.27.2007 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: 1 Comment »

A sickness in the family kept me from doing any cage building or pairing of snakes over the holiday weekend as I had planned. I spent it in the hospital instead.
We’ve got that behind us now though, so I stared pairing a few snakes this week. I’m still holding off on most of them, but I’ve got one female that has copulated a couple of times with a spider, and I have a lemon pastel male with a female now.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be putting more together. I’m going to let the albino male have a week or two to temperature cycle alone  before letting him have any girls. He didn’t show any breeding interest last season, but he was only a little over a year old. I’m hoping he’ll be up to the task this year.

Back to cage building tomorrow. I’m hoping to make some good progress on the new boa cage and maybe even get started on some of the new rodent racks.

Clay :: Nov.29.2007 :: Reptile Related :: No Comments »

I decided to put off starting the breeding season this year. I normally start pairing up the ball pythons in October sometime, and getting to the other pythons later on. I decided to wait until late November at least before I start introductions with the balls and see how that works.

For whatever reason I often see a 50% success rate in female becoming gravid, so I’m going to switch things up a little.
I went through and weighed my potential breeders a few days ago. Looks like I’ll have three more girls I hatched in 2004 that will be ready to join the stable this year.
The het clown female that produced the two awesome clowns for me this year is heavier now than before she was bred last year, so I’m hoping she’ll produce again.

One of my het albino females took this year off, and the other is a big 1900+ grams, so if my albino male decides to cooperate maybe I won’t miss the gene this year.

The spider male is of course ready to go, I think eat and breed is all the spiders are concerned with. He’s over 1100 grams now.  My lemon pastel male has crossed 1000 so maybe he’ll decide he’s ready this year too.
Unfortunately my female pastel isn’t going to be up to size to breed it doesn’t look like, so I might not see bumblebees this year after all.

I’ll be trying the bredli for the first time this season and I’ll be pairing the womas again as well. My woma technique still isn’t worked out completely and I’ve had mixed success in the past. I’m going to work on them again and see if I can get both females to reproduce for me.

We always have much more potential in a given season than we have results though, and I think most breeders understand that all too well. We’ll see in a few months how our plans work out, and as usual we have hopes of a very good season ahead.

Clay :: Nov.13.2007 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

It’s been a few months since there’s been a new cage design published on the site. Due to the format of my cage plans in that they are not drawings, but photos of the actual build, I can only add plans as I build cages and it’s just not that often that I come up with a new design.

This cage however is a big departure from what I have normally built. It’s going to be the most labor intensive cage I’ve built to date, but I think it’ll be worth it.
I’m looking forward to getting it in use and publishing the build on it. Being an experimental design though, I’m also just hoping that it’s usable once it’s built haha.
Not many people know the specifics of this cage yet, but just for a sneak preview, it’s being built to house large boa constrictors and will be 5 feet wide. My aim is to create a more stimulating environment for the snakes and maximize the opportunity for exercise while not taking up a lot of real estate in the room.

Actual assembly was ready to start yesterday, but I had to quit for the day.  My wife works nights too and I couldn’t fire up the air compressor without waking her up ;).
I’m hoping to get to work on it a bit in the morning before I have to go to bed. I’m still not expecting to have it finished until probably December.

This is the first time I’ve  started construction on a cage without having the entire plan in my head. I hadn’t decided on the type of doors, but right now I’m leaning toward hinged.
I still haven’t fully decided on the heating method either. I wanted to experiment with radiant heat panels, but I’m not sure that is going to happen in time, so I might have to fall back to the flexwatt on this one.

We’ll see how it turns out in the end, but I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone thinks of this project.

Clay :: Nov.11.2007 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

I rode down to Columbia last Saturday for the show. I haven’t been much of a show goer for the last few years, I think it was spring of 2006 since I’d been to one.

It was a good trip, the show was moderately good, not a lot there that interested me. I mainly went to see the eyelash vipers that David Kornerly was bringing. He had some outstanding specimens, and I enjoyed talking with him a few minutes.

I did pick up another addition to my lepidus group, a Davis Mountains locality male. Click the thumbnail below for a bigger pic of him.

It was worth the trip, since I hadn’t been to a show in so long, and better than the average Raleigh show these days.

Clay :: Nov.08.2007 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: 1 Comment »

I’ve been enjoying a new venture from Larry Suttles and BT called Reptile Radio. The show airs on BlogTalkRaido.com every Saturday night at midnight EST.

His latest guest was Brian Barczyk of BHB Reptiles. Brian will be returning this Saturday for part 2 of his talk.
You can listen to the show live or listen to past shows at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/reptileradio

Clay :: Nov.07.2007 :: Reptile Related :: No Comments »